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“Skating” by Vince Guaraldi for “A Charlie Brown Christmas”.From a green vinyl album recently received as a birthday present, just in time for the holidays. Charlie Brown Christmas was part of my childhood memories, though not one of the perennial family traditional viewings like the Rudolph or other stop-motion animation specials. (The voice of Burl Ives is still evokes a warming, cozy feeling of sitting on the couch in the family living room at the magical time of year.) Still, I recall how accessible and calm the show was - perhaps a little more close to reality when compared with all the unrelenting smiling and jingling of other specials.Being now the longest continuously broadcast show (second only perhaps to the Rudolph), it may seem odd that it almost didn’t make it to air and was deemed sure to flop by the CBS executives who were only forced to air it since it had already been announced and in the published schedules.It’s been a lot of fun to hear this and other music from the album, which curiously became an instant hit with the the three- and one- year olds (whose voices are also featured here). ;)
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The Best Waterproof Fountain Pen Inks | JetPensI recently revived use of my Lamy Safari, telling myself I’d go for 30 days before making any decisions on transitioning to it for my ‘everyday’ pen. (The current everyday pen being a Pentel Energel 7mm rollerball.)Nearing the end of my T10 Lamy Blue refill cartridges, and finding myself wanting to continue use further, I dug a little deeper before committing to a replacement ink. I had noticed the Blue would react adversely to water, and upon researching confirmed that it, like many standard fountain pen inks, are water soluble and will smudge and potentially even be rendered unreadable in enough water (making me particular nervous for some business correspondence I had addressed by hand recently). Some inks are considered various degrees of water resistant, and a few are specifically waterproof (though as you might suspect, the ink properties differ).In the end I settled on Lamy Blue-Black in T52 ink well which is water resistant and should adequately fill my needs.Thank you to the author of the above post for a great breakdown and analysis of inks.
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Apparently I completely missed that this technology was possible: and ink pen whose ink turns colorless under a jet lighter: Frixion from Pilot.All while learning more about the Pilot Namiki Vanishing Point fountain pen - maybe something for down the road milestone. :)
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Celebrated a birthday recently and the Mrs. got me a card I really took a fancy too …For Gutnis’ sake. :)
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The Caslon typeface.Originated by William Caslon I (d. 1766) of London, who established the H. W. Caslon & Sons type foundry and played a large part in developing the British type making industry which up to that time was effectively imported from Holland.Identified as the typeface used to disseminate the U.S. Declaration of Independence on July 5, 1776 printed by John Dunlap at his print shop blocks from Independence Hall in Philadelphia as he was overseen by Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Livingston, and Sherman known as the Dunlap Broadside. (The calligraphic parchment version of the Declaration not being signed until August 2 of that year.)It had small variations in its day, but was revived around the 1900s and subsequent when various designers adapted it to modern printing (e.g. Adobe Caslon Pro).It has both aficionados and detractors (as any good font should I suppose) but the descriptions I most liked were “comfortable and inviting” and a “happy archaism”.
Okay, rant time:
I’m certainly not the first to hit upon this, nor will I be the last, but for the love of all that is holy, can we agree what A6 is!?
So I understand different paper size standards evolved from different parts of the world - I’m fine with that. You’ve got those defined by ISO, ANSI, JIS, and others.
But I was recently looking at getting something printed, and I have an A5 Rhodia tablet and thought to myself: self, I’d like something just a little bit bigger for this project. So A6 “sounds” about right, right? Of course (and this is my own ignorance), the higher you go in the A series, the smaller the size. (Which is why one printer I think was scratching their head when I was describing the proposed layout and insightfully commented that there may not be much room left to write.)
That prompted me to dig deeper, through which I found this great website reference that has taken the painstaking steps to amalgamate these different standards into one place for reference (and even a little history and background). Here I was able to learn about my A6 mistake and better judge what would actually work.
But then, I was on another printer’s site on which they provided templates for different print job sizes, one of which is A9 with dimensions of 8.5" x 5.5". This is more in line with what I was thinking … but the actual ISO A9 is 1.5" x 2". Like, what is going on here? I’m sure there’s some deep explanation, of which I’m partly curious, but I fail to see the purposes of “standards” if everybody is just going to come up with their own definitions.
Phew … well at least that’s off my chest. Thank you gentle reader, and may your paper journeys be just a little less bumpy having now been equipped with this newfound knowledge.
Dictionary by Merriam-Webster: America’s most-trusted online dictionary
And here it is: “The United States of Letterpress” video on Field Notes’ 2020 fall special edition. A great peak into the community and spirit of letterpressers, and one which sparked inspiration and deep interest for me.
Hope you enjoy too! And if you’re curious to learn more about the memo books they produced, check them out here.
I’ve recently been inspired by letterpress - like, majorily. I’ve had an affinity for typography, layout, and design for awhile (was the newsletter editor for my Scout troop, webmaster for OA chapter, etc.) and it finds it’s way tangentially into my work. But the latest quarterly special edition from Field Notes entitled “The United States of Letterpress” (I’ll post here separately) just really tripped an ignition point and I’ve been headed down the rabbit hole ever since (even signing up for a tabletop letterpress workshop at a local art center scheduled for next month).
Above are some of the designs that have caught my attention: The DC cherry blossoms piece and the January calendar piece are from No Plan Press. The Enjoy Your Family piece is from a series by Ben Blount. and the Adventure piece is from Gingerly Press.
The simplicity, font choice, layout, crisp appearance, clean colors, and more have such a human appeal. And the fact that each piece was wrought by a person’s hand adds a layer of connectedness.
There’s probably more to come on this front, but I leave that here for now … And if you’re interested to see more, check out the letterpress hashtag on the Insta.
How to Check and Adjust Bike Disc Brakes
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Encryption technologies have been around for a long time and back in the late 90s early 2000s I thought for sure they’d be more widely integrated into consumer use by now. If anything, lots of internet consumer applications have weakened personal security (think social media, ‘internet of things’, location tracking, etc.)It’s been nice to see some solutions start to emerge, like Proton Mail linked here: There’s a free version that lets you take advantage of an encrypted email Inbox, and if used with other Proton Mail users (1m+) the sending/receiving is seamlessly encrypted too. Plus it’s compatible with other encrypted email clients.I’ve signed up for a free account and am giving consideration to a paid account at some point. The paid accounts permit Proton Mail to continue doing what they do - the advent of ‘free’ (which really isn’t free) has undercut the emergence of good solutions in many situations IMO (‘satisificing’ writ large can sometimes be dangerous).In any event, give it a swing and see what ‘cha think - putting drapes on windows helps make a home. :)Secure email: ProtonMail is free encrypted email.
Dreyer’s English is supposed to be quite good (and fun).
